The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is a play about two star-crossed lovers caught up in their two feuding families. Romeo is the son of Montague and Juliet is the daughter of Capulet. The main Montagues include Romeo’s mother, Lady Montague, and Romeo’s cousin, Benvolio. Romeo also has a friend named Mercutio who is unrelated to the Montague family. The main Capulet’s include Juliet’s mother, Lady Capulet, and Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt. The Capulet’s also have a nurse who’s always around but is not related. The city of Verona is where everything takes place.
The scene starts with a brawl taking place between the Montagues and Capulets. Benvolio and Tybalt are the main characters who are involved in this. Due to the constant violence of these brawls, citizens complain straight to Prince Escalus. The prince sends a warning the feuding families to stop at once or else one will experience death if the peace is disturbed again.
Romeo at this point is in love with a woman named Rosaline. She unfortunately does not feel the same way as him. Benvolio points this out and tells Romeo that he needs to forget about this Rosaline and find another beauty. Juliet is having her own problems. Paris, a kinsman has asked Capulet for his daughter’s hand in marriage. They must wait two years though because Juliet is only thirteen.
An invitation changes Romeo’s life. Benvolio, Mercutio, and Romeo accept one to go to the Capulet’s for a massive feast. Romeo is excited to go because he knows Rosaline will be there and Benvolio is excited to go because he knows there will be many beautiful women for Romeo to look at. Romeo did get a beautiful woman and instantly fell in love with her. Juliet. Their eyes gazed across the room at her family’s feast and without even knowing who each other really was, they embraced in an instant love. Juliet and Romeo are told of each other’s names by Juliet’s nurse. Later that night, Romeo visits Juliet on her balcony in probably the most famous scene of all Shakespeare’s plays. They exchange their love for each other and become engaged.
Romeo goes to see Friar Lawrence to tell him of the engagement. He agrees to marry them hoping to stop the never ending fights of their two families. After being married, Romeo encounters Tybalt. Furious that he saw Romeo at the Capulet’s house, he challenges Romeo to a duel. Because Romeo is now related to Tybalt he begs for Tybalt to not want to fight him. Mercutio decides he wants to fight Tybalt for Romeo. Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo kills Tybalt out of revenge. Romeo then gets banished from Verona for his crime.
Juliet’s father arranges for his daughter to marry Paris in three days because of Romeo. She cannot marry him because of her being married to Romeo. Unsure of what to do she goes to Friar Lawrence. He gives her a potion that will put her into a deep sleep making her appear to be dead. The Friar and Romeo would then take her away after she would wake up away from her parents.
Juliet drinks the potion unaware that the message of her and the Friar’s plan never reached Romeo. Romeo somehow finds out that Juliet is dead, so in turn, he buys a vile of poison to kill himself. Going back to Juliet’s tomb, Romeo lies by Juliet and drinks the poison he bought. Juliet wakes up to discover her beloved Romeo is dead and stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger. The families find their beloved children dead and decide to end their feud forever.